It doesn't seem possible to have any adequate response to what is happening in Egypt at the moment. But Egypt is significant, a home to me, and I am feeling it deeply.... So sometimes music can help where words fail.
Every rendition of 'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen, and then Jeff Buckley, conveys so much emotion, I felt it might help to use it to express something about how I feel about Egypt's situation, and offer a tribute and recognition of each individual tragedy that is unfolding.
I have kept some of Cohen's lyrics, for many reasons, but here is my adaptation. Apologies for the poor quality of the recording.. I'm also no singer or musician, but this is from the heart.
i heard there was a secret chord
that david played and it pleased the lord
but you dont have the heart for music, do ya?
It goes like this the fourth the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift,
the baffled king composing hallelujah
Hallelujah.....
One day you looked around and saw
No need for suffering or war
And all that had gone wrong down here cut through ya
The oppression of your fellow man
How was it that all this began?
And from your heart there rose a hallelujah
Hallelujah....
Remember when we dreamed of peace?
In a future that was yet to be
And everything seemed possible to ya
We smoked and sang and talked all night
About how to put the world to rights
And every word we spoke was hallelujah
Hallelujah
We grabbed an opportunity
To change the world, to make it free
But it was only given to fool ya
Your ideals used for other ends
The loss of families and friends
Its a cold and a bewildered halliluljah
Hallelujah
Now I do belive in God above
But so far all we've learned from love
Is how to shoot somebody that outdrew ya
It a cry you hear in the dark of night
Its a prayer the world will see the light
Its a fractured but a hopeful hallelujah
Hallelujah